Anyone concerned about the future of the planet and its people should be alarmed at the lack of progress made at the UN climate talks in Poznan.

The 190 countries meeting in Poland's former capital were supposed to put flesh on the bones of a new international agreement on climate change to be finalised in Copenhagen next year.

While ActionAid saw developing countries turning up to do just that, their counterparts from the rich world were determined to keep the bones bare. Some of their actions have even fractured parts of the skeleton.

First, the discussions have been hampered by a lame-duck United States team. With Barack Obama due to take over in January, the outgoing negotiators have kept a low profile, while being careful not to make any new commitments.

Second, Europe arrived without first having a word with their bank manager. The whole question of how the world pays for action on climate change – cutting greenhouse gas emissions, helping poor countries to adapt and harnessing clean technology to do both – is a crucial piece of the jigsaw.

Without clean technology the green development that will reduce poverty while protecting the climate is impossible. As low-lying Tuvalu's Prime Minister Apisai Ielemia put it on Thursday, "We cannot sink while others rise."

Yet the EU hasn't decided how it should find the cash and won't know until March.

While the UK's climate change minister, Ed Miliband, apparently found an extra £500,000 in his back pocket to spend on helping get the global Adaptation Fund up and running, this pales into insignificance against the $86bn extra a year the UN says poor countries need to help them adapt.

Finally, the EU's internal squabbling in parallel climate talks in Brussels has shredded much of its credibility as a leader on the issue. Guyana's President Bharrat Jagdeo, made an impassioned plea to Europe's leaders on Thursday. "If Europe sends a signal that it can make deep cuts only in prosperous times, what signal does this send to India and China?" he said.

But his call fell on deaf ears as Germany, Italy and a number of eastern European countries managed to wriggle out of making substantial cuts to their greenhouse gas emissions.

One year ago the EU committed to a unilateral cut of 20% on 1990 levels, rising to 30% in the event of a global deal.

But due to all the special pleading from businesses, a wide range of exemptions have been given to Europe's dirtiest industries meaning that the actual domestic cuts could be as little as 4%.

With less than 12 months to go before a deal is finalised, politicians everywhere are going to have to find a different way of working. Negotiators are usually like students with essay deadlines – they wait until the last possible moment to start their work, and then they ask for an extension.

ActionAid believes there is still time to reach a fair deal in Copenhagen next year but Poznan has made the mountain to climb that much steeper.